Alabama
Police reviewing possible links involving mosque burglaries
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) - Authorities are trying to determine whether at least two Alabama mosque burglaries might be linked to a similar case in Virginia.
Surveillance photos taken earlier this month during mosque break-ins in the east Alabama cities of Anniston and Gadsden show a man who appears similar to a person whose image was captured during a similar burglary in Blacksburg, Virginia.
A thief targeted donation boxes containing cash in each case. The FBI has sent a message to members of the Muslim community in Alabama saying the cases could be linked.
There's no immediate word of any possible connection with another mosque burglary earlier this week in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The leader of the Birmingham Islamic Center, Ashfaq Taufique, hopes the cases are run-of-the-mill thefts instead of an act of hate. But he says either is possible.
Illinois
Woman headed to prison15 years after sentencing
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) - An Urbana woman is being put behind bars 15 years after she was sentenced to prison.
The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that 44-year-old Aretha L. Baughman was arrested last week in Champaign County after a probation officer learned she was wanted on a 2002 warrant.
Baughman had been arrested on drug charges in 2000 and placed on probation as part of a plea bargain. After she violated her probation she was ordered to return to court for resentencing in October 2002. When she didn't show up, a judge sentenced her to six years in prison and issued a warrant for her arrest.
A probation officer who accompanied sheriff's deputies on a call to Baughman's home for a possible domestic dispute discovered there was a warrant for Baughman's arrest.
Maine
Court ruling hinges on comma
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - It all came down to a missing comma, and not just any one.
A federal appeals court decided last week to keep alive an Oakhurst Dairy drivers' lawsuit seeking more than $10 million in overtime.
It concerned an exemption from Maine's overtime law saying it doesn't apply to "canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of" foods.
There's no Oxford, or serial, comma in the "packing for shipment or distribution" part. The drivers said the words referred to the single activity of packing, which the drivers don't do. Oakhurst said the words referenced two different activities and drivers fall within the exemption.
Circuit Judge David Barron in Boston wrote : "For want of a comma, we have this case."
A social media frenzy about commas has erupted since.
Oregon
Man acquitted in '78 rape of wife found guilty of raping 2 women
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - An Oregon man who gained notoriety in 1978 when he became the first U.S. man to be tried for raping his wife while they were living together has been convicted of sexually assaulting two women.
John Rideout was found guilty Thursday of rape and sodomy, the Statesman Journal reported. The verdict in Marion County followed a trial that included testimony from Rideout and the two victims - an acquaintance from his church and an ex-girlfriend.
It had been almost 40 years since he stood trial in the same county for allegedly raping his wife at their Salem apartment in front of their 2-year-old daughter. Rideout was unanimously acquitted in the case that spawned a TV movie starring Mickey Rourke and Linda Hamilton.
That case arose a year after the Oregon Legislature passed a law eliminating marital privilege as a rape defense. Rideout and wife briefly reunited after the trial, but she filed for divorce in March 1979.
Rideout testified last week that afterward, he moved to Northern California to work in a gas station but had returned to Oregon to live in a trailer on his mother's property and work seasonally at Norpac Foods.
The church acquaintance testified that she hired Rideout to fix a piece of furniture and help with yard work. She said she thought he was intoxicated and invited him to sleep on her couch instead of bicycling home in the dark. She said goodnight, took her medication and went to bed.
"The next thing I knew, he was in my bed," she said. "I kept telling him to stop, but he wouldn't."
Rideout maintained the sex was consensual. The woman cried and left the courtroom when Rideout began describing his version of the encounter.
The ex-girlfriend testified that Rideout sexually assaulted her three times.
The woman said she broke up with Rideout after the second assault, but she agreed to live with him after a fire left her temporarily homeless.
After a third assault, she left for good, she said. She reported the sexual assault after her sister flagged down a deputy.
Rideout, who twice proposed to the woman, testified he never attacked her.
Without much physical evidence, Deputy District Attorney Gillian Fischer asked jurors to rely heavily on testimony.
Ohio
Judge gets jail over spending campaign funds
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio judge is to serve 10 days in jail, give $2,065 to a food bank and undergo alcohol treatment after authorities say he improperly spent campaign funds, including more than $1,000 at an upscale restaurant to celebrate his opponent dropping out of the 2014 race.
Franklin County Appeals Court Judge Tim Horton pleaded guilty Thursday to three misdemeanor counts of inaccurate campaign-finance reports, involving "unreasonable and excessive" spending of funds, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Judge Patricia Cosgrove also sentenced Horton to 100 hours of community service.
The misdemeanor convictions don't require Horton, a Democrat, to resign. But Franklin County Republican Party Chairman Doug Preisse says he should step down.
"It's shocking that any judge would propose that he be allowed to go to jail and come back to serve on the court when he's released," Preisse said.
Authorities say Horton also spent $173 on cigars for campaign supporters, even though he was running unopposed, and spent $979 for a restaurant fundraiser that was attended by only one donor.
Horton told the judge that his "mistakes and misjudgments" were partly caused by alcohol problems. His attorney, Jim Owen, said the investigation involved the office of State Auditor Dave Yost, a Republican, and was politically motivated.
Horton's case was in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court, where he served as judge before he was elected to the appeals court in 2014.
Published: Mon, Mar 20, 2017
